Community and Economic Development Grant

Community and Economic Development Grant Program – 2023-24

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners is pleased to announce that the 2023-24 Community and Economic Development Grant Program is now taking applications.

The long-standing grant program provides project-related funds to municipalities and public and private nonprofit organizations (public/private cooperative projects and regional economic development projects also qualify). These funds are intended to support impactful local projects in the areas of local community development and economic development. Special consideration will be given to projects demonstrating measurable economic development outcomes (i.e., job creation, retention, etc.).

As these funds are limited, applicants are encouraged to apply for other funding sources to support larger-scale projects. Consideration will be given to projects that are uniquely fiscally disadvantaged or otherwise not eligible for securing funding from more traditional sources. Although matching funds are desirable, they are not required. 

This year, the grant pool is $130,000 in total, broken into two grant pools. $60,000 is available for a single, larger-scale project, called an Impact Grant. $70,000 is available for smaller grants (called a Standard grant), with a maximum award being $15,000 per project.

The deadline for grant submissions will be 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 18. All grants will be submitted via the County’s online application portal. There will be a virtual grant workshop (held via Zoom) facilitated by the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County (EDALC), which will be held on 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28. You can register for this workshop by visiting this link: tinyurl.com/LC2023grantworkshop.

The grant portal requires an applicant to submit their proposal in one session. It is recommended that applicants review the documents linked below and view the application portal prior to preparing the application – and then to create your responses in a word processing program, so you can copy and paste them into the application. Project budgets will need to be submitted as a separate PDF document, attached to your application. Any letters of support need to be combined into a single PDF document for submission.

As in past years, EDALC will manage the application process and verify the organization’s eligibility and application. The EDALC Board of Directors will score the applications and will present their recommendations to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners for the final funding decision. Awardees will be notified by letter (delivered electronically) by the end of March 2024.

If you have questions about the grant process, you can reach out to Paul Schuytema (EDALC’s Executive Director) at paul@businesslincolncounty.com.

The grant application can be found here: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/34f3ca2ebcc844c8b492368e5c268444